St. Clair has always been a line Toronto had to fight for. When the city first built the route in 1913, it was an act of defiance — a public system created because private operators refused to serve the edge. Nearly a century later, the battle returned. What should have been a straightforward rebuild became one of the most intense civic conflicts in modern Toronto history.

By the early 2000s, the tracks were failing. The TTC and City proposed restoring St. Clair’s original dedicated right-of-way — a raised median that would finally give midtown reliable transit again. But the moment the plan was announced, the corridor split. Merchants feared lost parking and deliveries. Residents feared congestion. A group called Save Our St. Clair (SOS) launched a full legal assault, arguing the project violated planning rules and would damage the street forever.

In October 2005, they won — briefly. A Divisional Court halted construction. Rails sat unused on the pavement. Buses replaced streetcars. The corridor froze. Toronto’s midtown spine was stuck in limbo.

But the city fought back. A new court panel overturned the decision in February 2006, clearing the project to proceed. Construction resumed. The median rose. Tracks were laid. The right-of-way returned after more than seventy years of mixed-traffic compromise.

On June 30, 2010, the full line reopened from St. Clair Station to Gunns Loop. Toronto reclaimed the corridor it had lost — not quietly, not easily, but through conflict, persistence, and civic will.

Today, the 512 runs on a modern dedicated right-of-way, stitching together neighbourhoods across midtown. The fight changed the street, the city, and the way Toronto thinks about public space. It proved that infrastructure is never neutral — it’s political, emotional, and worth defending.

THE FIGHT 4 ST. CLAIR is a reminder:
Toronto builds itself.
Toronto argues with itself.
Toronto restores itself.
And midtown always finds a way forward.